Sayashi Riho: Doesn't come back even one smallest, tiniest bit, not even photos. She holds on to her ~2 years away with an iron fist. Await next year's prediction thread for the hope. (Negative Nelly here, y'all)

DonJuan, on 09 Dec 2016 - 2:28 PM, said:

MM'17: Someone will graduate, I'm sure about that.

MM'17: They'll get an album, but it's going to be a best-of.

MM'17: Will become the company's main interest group again.

MM'17: Mizuki, Ayumi, Haruka and O. Haruna will get a photobook.

°C-ute: One member will leave the showbiz completely.

ANGERME: They'll get one good and one boring single. (Subjective, but I left it -TicTac)

ANGERME: Since the company shoves their interest to another group next year ANGERME will have a so-so year.

Kobushi: Will continue to perform with other idol groups and build up a decent fanbase.

Tsubaki: Will finally get Up-Front's attention once °C-ute's graduated.

Others: This is still 2016 kinda, but Buono! will announce their disbandment at the Countdown concert, since Momoko will leave showbiz.

Others: Sayumi will get a new radio show. (Partially. She was on radio shows --TicTac)

Derby, on 09 Dec 2016 - 6:26 PM, said:

MM'17:

- In other news they get an album and their singles have only 1 boring song, the other 2 are always good.

ANGERME:

- They get 2 replacements to keep the number 9 but they add this 2 girls together so they have a single as 8.

Mizura, on 09 Dec 2016 - 8:13 PM, said:

13ki end up being well recieved. Although Danbara Ruru doesn't get chosen and she leaves and debuts right away somewhere else. (Partially true, debuted in H!P still --TicTac)

Angerme starts selling better and rivaling Morning Musume more.

Sayumi has a job of some sorts involving Hello! Project.

Oda Sakura or Kudo Haruka ends up announcing their graduation.

zlilzlilzlil, on 10 Dec 2016 - 10:51 AM, said:

MM:

- the 13 generation will be a nice addition (as they are from the eggs).

- from 12 generation a see Miki being pushed more.

iDOL1641, on 10 Dec 2016 - 1:52 PM, said:

MM17: 13th gen won't make much of an impact, but they'll be better than 12th gen. (Felt the first part was subjective but still relevant, so kept it in --TicTac)

Anderei, on 10 Dec 2016 - 7:59 PM, said:

I'm going to start predicting new JJ members every year until it happens. I mentioned it elsewhere but next year they'll all be 18+ and aren't far away from finding themselves in C-ute's situation.

Shoujo Q, on 11 Dec 2016 - 7:47 PM, said:

Morning Musume : Someone is leaving. Probably from the 10th gen.

Morning Musume : 20th anniversary. Semi-world tour. And an album release. (Probably 3 versions and one of them will have a cover of old Musume songs.)

C-ute : They Release a Mega Album like Berryz did with another cover of old songs but handpicked by C-ute members. (Wouldn't that be awesome?)

ANGERME : They don't suck, but I'll continue to be on the fence with them for the 1st half of the year. Momona finally breaks out of her shell.

Country Girls : New members are added in the new year. And they release an album.

Kobushi/Tsubaki : Someones going to lose a member. I just haven't decided from which group. Probably Tsubaki.

New group is formed in the wake of the C-ute loss. (Halfway. We'll see where Reina's group leads. --TicTac)

JPope, on 11 Dec 2016 - 8:32 PM, said:

Here's my only prediction:

Neither Ikuta nor Iikubo will graduate. Other(s) will.

Well, that and I expect a drop-off in quality of music given to ANGERME, but that's totally subjective.

Saya, on 19 Dec 2016 - 02:35 AM, said:

MM:
-14th Gen Auditions Announced
-10th gen member graduates

TicTacAnyone, on 28 Dec 2016 - 02:23 AM, said:

I wanna add one more prediction before the year starts...

-MM will start performing lots of Platinum era songs.

TheParuProject, on 17 Jan 2017 - 7:27 PM, said:

MM:

14th gen auditions announced near the end of the year.

New album. Finally.

C-ute:

Airi continues to perform as a singer with a different company.

Juice=Juice:

Uhhh... consistency? That's what they're good for.

Country Girls:

Momo graduates, Risa is named leader.

Country Girls releases their first album. Included are the 4 unreleased songs they've been doing in lives, the '15 updated version of Hajimete no Happy Birthday! heard at 2015's Hina Fes, and a few other CM covers (Kakumeichikku KISS, please?)

They re-record their first single for the album so as to do their absolute best to erase Uta from history. LOL

Morning museums: Someone else is going to graduate. I’m thinking Iikubo, Masaki or Mizuki. Their songs will stay pretty much the way they’ve been and they won’t really have anything really different that’ll warrant any image change.

Angerme: Maho is probably going to leave. If she doesn’t, someone else is going to graduate. Probably Akari or Rina.

Tsubaki Factory: they’ll continue to do decently well and better than Kobushi Factory. Someone is probably going to graduate or have a scandal. There’s no way that 9 members is going to last for a long time.

Kobushi Factory: Can’t tell if Taguchi is going to leave or not. But I don’t really expect anything exciting to happen either way. They’ll probably continue to have mediocre occasional releases and they might add a new member or 2 to make it more interesting.

Reina’s group: Hopefully they’ll announce it and it’ll be well received and I’ll like it more than Kobushi Factory.

KSS: Inoue Hikaru debuts into the Reina group. Takase Kurumi and Momohime end up joining as well and holding concurrent positions with Engeki Joshibu

- J=J had one physical and one digital single (and we're still waiting for the full MV of the latter) (...and ... Goal... which was also a digital single but everyone forgot about that one? i mean they even count Fiesta Fiesta as their first digital single?)

- CG had the same as J=J, as well as an album which was released under Momoko's name (lol). But then again, CG had other problems to deal with this year...

- Kobushi had one single. dude.

- Tsubaki is the only other group with 2 physical single releases. They also had nothing else, while the others had soundtrack albums or something. Not counting these though because honestly who cares about them.

Makes 9-ish (depending on what you count the second ANGERME single as...) physical singles for 6 groups. Eh. Remember when J=J only got one single one year and their fans were pissed? Well.

Going on with the predictions...

Morning Musume

- another graduation, for sure.

- see them announce 15ki auditions sometime next year

- two new singles next year

- Morito, Yokoyan and Miki will get special focus

- Kaede will become the tomboy once Duu is gone

ANGERME

- hopefully more than one single

- will continue as 9. I expect Maho to leave completely at the end of this year, there won't be graduations next year

- another stageplay, again with Dawa and Moe as the protagonists - and Takechan and Kana as the guys. lol.

Juice=Juice

- two singles

- will go on as if nothing happened

- finally US tour stop

CG

- one digital single

- will be disbanded afterwards

Kobushi

- how does Up-Front fix problems? add members!! (at least two for Kobushi)

- they're rebranding the group, therefore they'll get at least two singles

Tsubaki (I nearly forgot about them, see how much I care about them)

- going against the general opinion I'm gonna say they won't lose a member

- if they're going to lose a member it's going to be Kiki due to health reasons (apparently she's still not performing with them?)

- will continue to have rather sucessful singles (selling more copies than Kobushi and J=J)

- another photobook for the group, probably Kisora because I care about her as much as I do about Riko (= not at all)

Ichioka Factory

- will get members from the H!P auditions and KSS

- there will be an awkwardly large age difference between Ichioka and the youngest members (I expect a 13yo to join)

- since they're the new hot thing we'll be amazed by the promotion for them (only for them to be dropped 2019/20)

KSS

- some will go to Ichioka Factory

- if not chosen for IF Inoue Hikaru will leave

- Yuhane will continue to get CM deals

Extras

- Ozeko will quit showbiz, Yamakki will stay for as long as her university education takes

- there will be at least one graduation due to health reasons, money is on Kiki and/or Masaki.

- Tsunku will write only 2 songs for single releases. in general. they probably both go to MM.

^
As long as they maintain this many full time groups, they'll continue to all have fewer releases as a result. The days are long gone where they focus on releasing stuff for MM and everything else comes second.

Tsubaki have had two major singles but still have never even toured which is weirder. It's not necessarily a bad idea to pull back a bit on releases but touring is an idol groups bread and butter

They wouldn't but it would still mean fitting three promo periods in a year in between touring and all the other groups. This isn't a problem just H!P is having. The 48 groups and Stardust are experiencing it too due to the number of groups they're all pumping out.

- J=J had one physical and one digital single (and we're still waiting for the full MV of the latter) (...and ... Goal... which was also a digital single but everyone forgot about that one? i mean they even count Fiesta Fiesta as their first digital single?)

- CG had the same as J=J, as well as an album which was released under Momoko's name (lol). But then again, CG had other problems to deal with this year...

- Kobushi had one single. dude.

- Tsubaki is the only other group with 2 physical single releases. They also had nothing else, while the others had soundtrack albums or something. Not counting these though because honestly who cares about them.

Juice=Juice also had Jouro release too, but yeah many forgot about that XD

Ozeki Mai will lose interest in idol activities and the other three will find it too stressful to balance both groups, and CG will disband. Risa will continue to be active under H!P in other random projects.

Juice=Juice also had Jouro release too, but yeah many forgot about that XD

Damn, I did... so J=J wasn't even that bad off this year. I mean their world tour in general was already big and they got two good new members, but now, with basically 4 releases...

Depends on if you think unpromoted digital releases are a replacement for physical ones. They're also one of the most inactive groups when it comes to magazines, tv and stuff so there's definitely a trade off.

Whatever happened to Tomoko's health? It doesn't seem to have slowed down J=J.

There are varying degrees of severity for endometriosis right? And their choreo tends to not be super intense, imo. She's a good candidate for leaving simply because next year her and Yuka will be 23 and 24. I think them adding new members basically cemented that management doesn't plan on them being around much longer.

Morning Musume: kind of continues on the path of meh, no new members until 2019, no graduations this year, graduation announced at Fall tour for next spring

Angerme: Maho doesn't return, continues to release great singles, releases 3 next year, I see Aya sticking around till she's 25, if there are any graduation announcements it'l be for the fall tour and it'll be Katsuta

Juice=Juice: releases a new album, continues to release alternative singles, I don't see them adding anybody without some kid of exceptional skill to the "professional group"

Country Girls: releases 2 digital singles with every H!P concert (4 total), only concert music videos to everyone's disappointment

Kobushi Factory: gets shafted in light of all the scandals, only releases 2 singles

Tsubaki Factory: no graduations or additions, rises above Kobushi in terms of treatment and gets more spotlight, releases 2 singles that are really good

Reina's Group: 8 members, Reina, 3 girls from the H!P Audition (Kodama, Goto, and Momoko) , 3 Kenshuusei, and a surprise member (maybe Ozeki, Yamaki, or a Hokkaido KSS), only releases indie singles this year, and they're all digital or only for sale at concerts

KSS: Audition failures join (Yuriya, Shion, Ruru, Anna, and Nanami) one of them leaves within a year

Extra: H!P as a whole moves away from physical releases and focuses more on digital releases